A
recent study by researchers at Boston University shows religious exposure may
affect children's ability to distinguish fiction from fact.

Researchers
presented three types of stories (religious, realistic, and fantastical) to a
group of 5- and 6-year-old children, and tested to determine whether or not
religious exposure affected children's ability to identify if characters were
real or make-believe.

Not
surprisingly, they found a clear distinction in children from a religious
background - those children had a much harder time differentiating between fact
and fiction. As the study, published in the journal Cognitive Science, notes:

“The
results suggest that exposure to religious ideas has a powerful impact on
children’s differentiation between reality and fiction, not just for religious
stories but also for fantastical stories.”

The
researchers found that all children, regardless of their religious background,
identified the main character of the realistic stories as real. When presented
with religious stories, that included “ordinarily impossible events brought
about by divine intervention,” children who attended church or were enrolled in
a parochial school, or both, identified the lead character as real, which isn’t
unexpected. On the other hand, children with no religious exposure judged the
protagonist of the religious stories to be fictional.

The
results may lead us to wonder if religion doesn't reinforce gullibility. About
28 percent of Americans who participated in the 2013-2014 Gallup survey believe
that the Bible is the actual word of God
and should be interpreted literally, while another 47 percent think that
the Bible is inspired by the word of God. It is pretty clear that we are not
born believers, but are shaped into believers depending on our exposure to
religious teachings.

It
is difficult to prove if growing up in a religious setting turns children into
better people, and in fact, some studies have even shown that religious
children are meaner and more punitive than secular children.

It's
definitely something to think about. The full study can be viewed here.